Timothy Jay Schwab who is The God Culture believes documenting trade items will locate the Lequios Islands in the Philippines. According to an obscure article in a French journal the Japanese constructed their windows out of shells instead of glass. These shells originated in the Lequios Islands thus the Philippines is the Lequios Islands.
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| https://thegodculturephilippines.com/the-shell-trade-of-lequios----and-why-it-was-never-ryukyu/ |
In a curious but revealing 19th-century reference found in Annales archéologiques (T.24, 1864), French scholars noted that the Japanese had historically used shells from the islands of Lequios as a substitute for glass in windows. The quotation reads:
“The Japanese, says M. Vosgien, use large shells instead of window glass, which they obtain from the islands of Lequios, where this material is widely traded.”
That is an interesting piece of information but watch what Tim does next.
At first glance, this might seem like a simple remark on a historical trade pattern. But as we examine it more closely — and interrogate what materials were being traded, where they originated, and who could have supplied them — it becomes another key entry in the growing list of hard evidence that “Lequios” never referred to the Ryukyu Islands, but rather to the Philippines, and specifically to its northern and central trade networks.
Let’s explore why.
🐚 1. What Were These “Shell Windows”?
Before modern glass became widely available in Asia, many societies employed translucent natural materials for windows — especially in temples, colonial structures, or elite homes. In the Philippines, the most iconic version of this is the capiz shell window.
Capiz shells, from the marine bivalve Placuna placenta, are uniquely thin, nearly transparent, yet sturdy. These shells are easily flattened and cut, making them perfect for creating panes. They give off a pearlescent glow when sunlight passes through — both practical and aesthetic.
Such windows became standard in Spanish-era Filipino homes, particularly in Luzon and the Visayas. Even today, capiz shell windows remain a cultural emblem of the Philippines.
Do you see what Tim has done? He has side-stepped Japan and has started discussing FILIPINO HOMES! In no part of this article does Tim discuss Japanese home construction. This is a classic bait and switch. Tim concludes his article like this:
There is no recorded shell trade from Ryukyu to Japan using capiz or similar shells — because those shells simply don’t exist there.
That is false. There was a very robust shell trade in the Ryukyu Islands.
What would have been the main economic incentive to residing in the Ryukyu islands during the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries? As rugged islands with thin soil and limited sources of fresh water, Ryukyu did not inspire people to come there and stay for the agriculture. Fishing and related harvesting of sea products could have supported small villages, and the shell trade was lucrative into the thirteenth century. Other than sea-shells, however, local natural resources were not sufficient to support large concentrations of population and power, especially in Okinawa and Sakishima.
Gregory Smits - Maritime Ryukyu, 1050–1650, pg 36
Using gravity as a metaphor, from around 1500 onward Shuri became a massive center, bending the space around the Ryukyu islands and pull- ing them all into its orbit. By the time the official histories were written, it was probably inconceivable that early Ryukyuan history could be anything other than centered on Okinawa, especially the Urasoe-Shuri-Naha region. Modern works have almost all followed this pattern, locating the earliest traces of Ryukyuan history in the island of Okinawa. As we have seen, however, the early center of population, economic vigor, advanced material culture, military power, and more within the Ryukyu islands were the three northernmost islands, with Kikai as the administrative center. This Northern Tier was a human and cultural junction between the Japanese islands, the Korean peninsula, probably coastal China, and possibly elsewhere.
The best turbo shells were found in the northern Ryukyu islands. As demand for this product increased, the shell trade expanded southward, setting the stage for the gradual emergence of centers of population and power in and around the harbors of Okinawa.
Gregory Smits - Maritime Ryukyu, 1050–1650, pgs 248-247
More than anything else, the geographic location of the Ryukyu Islands shaped their impact on the East China Sea region. First, the islands were the only location in the region where turbo shells were present. Many other valuable shells and southern island products were found most abundantly in the Ryukyu Islands, even if present in other locations.
Gregory Smits - Early Ryukyuan History_ A New Model, pg. 263
Green Turban or Turbo Shells look like this:
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| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_marmoratus |
They were used as decoration in Japan.
In fact, the Shōyūki recorded that in the 1020s, local governors of southern Kyūshū presented to the author, a court aristocrat, local specialties of the southern islands including the Chinese fan palm, redwoods, and shells of Green Turban Shell. The Shinsarugakuki, a fictional work written in the mid-11th century, introduced a merchant named Hachirō-mauto, who traveled all the way to the land of the Fushū in the east and to Kika Island (貴賀之島, Kikanoshima) in the west. The goods he obtained from the southern islands included shells of Green Turban Shell and sulfur. The Shinsarugakuki was not mere fiction; the Golden Hall of Chūson-ji (c. 1124) in northeastern Japan was decorated with tens of thousands of green turban shells.
Smits also mentions other shells which were found abundantly in the Ryukyu Islands which were part of the trade.
For Tim to say there was "no recorded shell trade from Ryukyu to Japan" is to reveal his ignorant assumptions and lack of research. Tim might counter by noting the source I have cited says "the shell trade was lucrative into the thirteenth century" therefore these shells cannot be the ones referred to in the French Journal because the trade had dried up. Smits does not indicate the trade dropped off completely. There are also other things to consider regarding Lequios trade routes.
Here is the full context of Tim's citation.
This mother-of-pearl, rippled by the rays of the sun, must produce a charming effect applied to the defense and decoration of windows in the Far East. We easily understand that its use, though somewhat costly, is still preferred to glass, plus fragility and a much higher price. But glass is transparent and mother-of-pearl is not. It is true that, as elsewhere in China, we will soon see that the use of glass, in ancient domestic architecture, was very backward in Europe compared to the advanced Middle Ages, and that paper, as in the north of China and in Korea, had been used for a long time in our countries.
In a section of the great work of Pierre Le Vieil on painting on glass, we found a related passage about these mother-of-pearl and tortoiseshell enclosures that is in question, and which he himself used. This fact seemed so uninteresting to us that it was not reported, although the travelers who mentioned it did not deserve it, say learned scholars, an entire confidence.
Here is the passage from Le Vieil's book: «We do not lack examples of shells used for windows instead of glass. The Japanese, says Mr. Vosgien, use, instead of glass, large shells they get from the Lequios Islands, where it's a great trade. Mr. Abbé Prévost says that the Chinese used them in the construction of their buildings, the shell of a large oyster that one finds in the Canal de Chan-To; that the Portuguese who work with such finesse, who make them produce reflections suitable for the transparency of glass.
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=ucm.5324610535&seq=277&q1=lequios
There is a note on this text which refers to Geographical Dictionary by Vosgien.
"LEQUIOS, name of several Islands of the West. It has six principal ones & several small ones, tributaries of the King of Saxuma. The inhabitants govern themselves by their own laws, & have their Emperor like the Japanese. They are gentle & very fond of music. The Islands are very abundant. A large trade is made there in large shells, which the Japanese use instead of glass. They are cut obliquely at 145 d. of longitude, towards 26 & 27 of latitude."
Whether intentionally or accidentally, Vosgien, Prévost, and Le Vieil preserved a sliver of truth in the shell trade — a truth that affirms the Philippines, not Okinawa, as the real “Lequios.”
This conclusion is further supported by:
Pigafetta’s journals noting “Lequios” junks arriving from Luzon from northeast of Cebu.
Two days' journey thence to the northwest is found a large island called Lozon, where six or eight junks belonging to the Lequian people go yearly.
That means the Lequios Islands were engaged in trade with the Philippines. If the shells used in Japanese windows were Capiz shells it would not be surprising if they were obtained from the Lequios who obtained them from the Philippines. The Ryukuyan Islands were engaged in trade with the entire East and Southeast Asian region.
In the spring of 1609, the Ryukyu kingdom 琉球王国 was defeated by an invasion by the Satsuma domain of Japan, ruled by the Shimazu 島津 family. King Shō Nei 尚寧 and major Ryukyuan officials were marched off to Satsuma as prisoners of war. In response to the daimyo’s report on the invasion, the Tokugawa bakufu recognized Satsuma’s control over Ryukyu. The Tokugawa authorities, thus, brought Ryukyu, a kingdom that had maintained tributary relations with Ming China since the latter half of the fourteenth century, within the political orbit of Tokugawa Japan. From then until 1879, when the Meiji government abolished the kingdom and annexed Ryukyu into Japan as Okinawa Prefecture, the Ryukyu kingdom accepted both Chinese and Japanese claims of suzerainty.
In the fifteenth century, Ryukyu, acquiring a huge stock of Chinese commodities through the tribute trade, actively developed a state-run transit trade with the countries of East and Southeast Asia. Because the Ming interdiction of seafaring resulted in the general suppression of Chinese maritime trade, Ryukyu could sell Chinese products in short supply to East and Southeast Asia, while delivering products from these other countries to the Ming empire. The kingdom’s main trading port was Naha. Commercial ships from East and Southeast Asia visited the port, and some seafarers settled there
Residents of Kumemura performed services such as interpretation, composing diplomatic documents in Chinese, building ships, and sailing, thus supporting Ryukyu’s diplomacy and trade not only with Ming China but also with Korea and other countries of Southeast Asia.
The Tokugawa World, pgs. 420-422
The article Tim cites says the Chinese used shells in construction of buildings.
Mr. Abbé Prévost says that the Chinese used them in the construction of their buildings, the shell of a large oyster that one finds in the Canal de Chan-To
That is another possible source for the shells used in Japanese windows. There is a whole network of trade routes which Tim ignores in his foolish and misguided quest to prove the Philippines are the Lequios Islands. Tim says Capiz shells are endemic to the Philippines. That means they are found nowhere else.
Capiz shells are endemic to the Philippines.
Thus, if shells from Lequios were used in Japan for window construction, and the only shell species capable of this function is capiz, the source must have been the Philippines, not Okinawa.
That is wrong. These shells, known as Placuna Placenta, are widely distributed in the Indo-West Pacific.
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| THE LIVING MARINE RESOURCES OF THE WESTERN CENTRAL PACIFIC VOLUME 1 Seaweeds, corals, bivalves and gastropods, pg. 218 |
Distribution: Widespread in the tropical Indo-West Pacific, from the Gulf of Aden to eastern Indonesia; north to Taiwan Province of China and south to Queensland.
These shells could have been sourced from China or Taiwan both of which are close to the Lequios Islands.
These shells make a most attractive and useful screen, made up either in three divisions in the usual form of the Japanese screen, or else in a single division like the Spanish screen.
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| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoji |
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